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Liam Halligan reviews The National Debt: A Short History by Martin Slater

Economics is often dubbed "the dismal science". And The National Debt: A Short History is hardly an eye-catching title. Yet this book by Oxford academic Martin Slater is an interesting and important read.

Slater tells the surprisingly absorbing story, from the Middle Ages to the 2008 financial crisis, of the ebbs and flows in the debt owed by the monarchy and then the Government. In doing so, he also delivers a pithy yet penetrating account of British history.

During the decade since 2007, the UK's national debt tripled to almost £2 trillion. "Measured in single pound coins," writes Slater, "this debt pile would reach...